Mission & History

Our Mission

Our mission is to enhance quality of life, today and in the future, by:

Enabling donors to fulfill their charitable desires

Building a permanent endowment

Facilitating prudent management and care of funds

Meeting needs through grants, awards, and scholarships;

Our Vision

By 2015, the Russell County Area Community Foundation will become the foremost philanthropic organization serving donors seeking to benefit the Russell County Area. The Foundation will pursue this vision by increasing the community awareness and understanding of how to establish component funds and ways to accomplish local gifting that RCACF can uniquely provide. The Foundation will further promote existing endowment funds within the Foundation.

Our History

On July 16, 2001, local civic leaders saw the need to create a permanent source of philanthropy to address current and future community needs through grant making and partnerships. In response to this need, the Russell County Area Community Foundation was formed by affiliating with the already established Greater Salina Community Foundation, serving as a vehicle for charitable giving benefiting the entire Russell County and the areas served by USD 399 and USD 407.

Today, our Foundation has assets over $9 million and nearly 60 charitable funds created by generous people like you.

Over the years, our local board and our donors have directed more than $1 million to meaningful causes and issues- from the arts and early child education to historic preservation and hunger relief. Hundreds of students have attended college with help from our scholarships.

The Foundation believes that as a community we are stronger than we are as individuals. This belief is reflected in our rope logo.

“The idea of a rope– individual fibers braided together to make a stronger whole– inspired this design. The same principle applies in a community: many individuals and groups working together to do what cannot be done alone. The Community Foundation provides a ‘rope’ for this area, enabling projects and furthering creative ideas that might unravel without community help and support.”
– Pamela Harris, Designer

The Russell County Area Community Foundation is an affiliate of the Greater Salina Community Foundation in Salina, Kansas. The Greater Salina Community Foundation was established in 1999 and is led by Executive Director, Bill Grevas. Currently, the Greater Salina Community Foundation hosts 13 regional affiliate foundations and has more than $200 million in assets, including its affiliate assets.

Sep 10 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

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Recent News

March 1st, 2019

RUSSELL, Kan.—The Russell County Area
Community Foundation is pleased to announce that the Lucas Arts and Humanities
Council has accepted a $25,000 grant to support the creation of a gateway for
Greenhorn Post Rock Limestone tourism in Kansas.
The grant is a result of the
foundation’s new Strategic Partnership for the Advancement of Russell County
(SPARC) grant program, which aims to stimulate significant economic
development, community collaboration, and long-term, measured impact in Russell
County.
The project will initially focus on
the development of a 17-county coalition to promote tourism in Post Rock
country, with Russell County as the hub, offering educational exhibits, limestone
gifts, tours of regional limestone architecture, and stone[...]

February 22nd, 2019

RUSSELL, Kan.—The Russell County Area
Community Foundation is pleased to announce that Russell Development
Incorporated (RDI) will receive a $175,000 grant to purchase and develop 20
acres of commercial real estate along Interstate 70 in Russell.
The grant will be funded through the foundation’s new Strategic Partnership for the Advancement of Russell County (SPARC) grant program. Throughout the multi-tiered application process, the grant selection committee felt RDI’s I-70 proposal fully encompassed the SPARC mission to stimulate significant economic development, community collaboration, and long-term, measured impact in Russell County. SPARC, which launched last summer, is the community foundation’s largest single grant since opening in 2001.
“The[...]